Supreme Court Opinion on CIGNA Corp. v. Amara; Changed Terms of Pension Plan Prompted Participants to Sue under ERISA (PDF)
"The lower courts agreed, reformed the new plan, and ordered petitioner to pay benefits accordingly." (Supreme Court of the United States via Dorsey & Whitney, LLP)

DATAIR Defined Contribution Plan Software [Advert.]

Software for proposals, compliance testing, statements and periodic administration for "DC" plans. System handles 401(k), Profit Sharing (including Cross Testing), 403(b), ESOP, and NQ plans. Cost-effective PC-based system for TPAs and consultants.

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Class-Wide Relief for Summary Plan Description Miscommunication
"The Court rejected outright the lower court's rationale, and the rationale advocated by the plaintiff and the Department of Labor, that a claim for a faulty summary plan description (SPD) can be pursued as a contractual claim for benefits, such that the court can enforce the terms of the SPD, as understood by the participants, instead of the terms of the plan itself." (Proskauer Rose LLP)

Reversal of Earlier Ruling in Class-Action Case Brought by Cigna Employees Is Victory for Retirement Plan Sponsors
"The Supreme Court today reversed two lower-court rulings in a class-action case that arose after Cigna switched from a traditional defined-benefits retirement plan to a cash-balance plan in 1998." (CFO Publishing LLC)

Court Can't Alter CIGNA Cash Balance Plan, Supreme Court Says
"The case, CIGNA Corp. et al. vs. Janice C. Amara et al., involves a cash balance pension plan that CIGNA Corp. set up in 1998 to replace a traditional final average pay plan." (Business Insurance)

Supreme Court Sends Back Cash Balance Notice Decision
"The U.S. Supreme Court has sent back for further proceedings a lower court decision that ordered CIGNA Corp. to reform its cash balance plan in awarding relief to participants on a conversion notice violation." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

What's Next in Employment Agreements: Free Webinar [Advert.]

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Supreme Court Decision in Amara v. CIGNA a Victory for Workers and Retirees, Says Pension Rights Center
"Although the district court is given considerable leeway, the standards laid down by the Court in this decision make it likely that the CIGNA employees and retirees will get the pensions that they had been led to believe that they would get." (Pension Rights Center)

EBSA Seeks Comments on Alternative Method of Compliance for Certain SEPs
"The regulation is intended to relieve sponsors of non-model SEPs from ERISA's Title I reporting and disclosure requirements by prescribing an alternative method of compliance." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)

Survey of Defined Benefit Plan Sponsors, 2010
"The report . . . polled plan decision-makers about funded status, plan status, asset allocation, plan design changes, and other key plan aspects. 'What jumps out is that plan sponsors' top concern is not returns; it's managing risk,' . . . ." (The Vanguard Group, Inc.)

2009 Plan Funding of the Towers Watson 100 on a Regulatory Basis: Actuarial Assumptions and Methods
"For the TW 100, this analysis identifies valuation methods, asset values, funding targets, funded status, plan contributions, funding balances and actuarial assumptions for the 2009 plan year." (Towers Watson)

Begin Social Security Benefits for the Right Reasons
"According to new behavioral economics research, the way seniors are presented with information about Social Security benefits has a big impact on their decision. Further, it found, generations of retired workers may have claimed benefits too soon based on the long-standing way many experts described the claiming decision." (U.S. News & World Report)

A 401(k) Retirement Plan That Works
"In study after study, 401(k) investors come up short of the amount they need to sustain a pre-retirement lifestyle during their golden years. The reason for the failure? Lack of planning. To avoid finding yourself in short of cash just as your leisure years begin, consider these six tips." (Investopedia US via San Francisco Chronicle)

Is Your 401k Plan Investment Policy Statement Still Using Outdated Language?
"It's beyond the scope of one weekly column to provide a comprehensive review of updating an IPS, so we'll concentrate on perhaps the sexiest part of the plan: The Three Fundamental Investment Goals." (Fiduciary News)

Disputing the 'Cost' of Fiduciary Rulemaking
"Both the Consumer Federation of America . . . and the Committee for the Fiduciary Standard went after the notion that the fiduciary standard of care being extended to all investment advice would somehow harm average investors by increasing costs and limiting availability to products and services." (fi360 Blog)

Oklahoma Governor Signs Pension Reform Legislation That Will Eliminate Up to 35 Percent of State's Unfunded Pension Liability
"The most significant piece of the package was House Bill 2132, which stops the Legislature from approving unfunded future cost-of-living increases for the state's retirement systems. That change will eliminate $5 bil.lion of the estimated $16 bil.lion unfunded retirement liability for the state." (World Publishing Co.)

Panel Discussion Video on Retirement in Today's Economy
"From fluctuating markets to concerns about inflation to simple questions regarding where we go from here, this can seem to be a confusing time to retire. Should you ride out the market? How should you invest if you're still years away from retiring?' (GuideStone)

Video: EBRI's 2011 Spring Policy Forum on Retirement Issues, May 12, 2011
"The Forum addressed 'Is There a Future for Retirement?' and featured expert panelists from a range of organizations." (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)

The DOL's Proposal to Update ERISA's Fiduciary Definition: Right Thought, Wrong Approach
"[Since] only Congress has the power to amend ERISA in this fashion. As a result, the Department should be focusing its efforts on convincing Members of Congress of the value of its position rather than assuming it has the authority to change any law it feels has become outdated." (Phil Troyer via Business of Benefits published by Robert J. Toth, Jr.)

Proposed Revision of Actuarial Standard of Practice No. 27, Selection of Economic Assumptions for Measuring Pension Obligations (PDF)
"Our comments address the following: (1) the need to separate the selection of market-consistent assumptions from other types of assumptions; and (2) a need for further guidance on (a) when different types of assumptions are appropriate and how market-consistent assumptions might be constructed, and (b) additional disclosures that may be appropriate when non-market-consistent assumptions are used." (American Academy of Actuaries / Society of Actuaries)

American Benefits Council Amicus Brief in George et al v. Kraft on Unitization and Recordkeeping Fee Rulings (PDF)
"First, the proffered brief shows that the panel's unitization ruling conflicts with decisions of the Supreme Court and this Court regarding three important concepts fundamental to ERISA administration and enforcement: (1) the settlor function doctrine, (2) the plan document rule, and (3) the deferential standard of judicial review of fiduciary decisions." (American Benefits Council)

2011 Annual Report of Social Security Trustees Shows Significant Worsening of Program's Finances
"The program's long-term actuarial deficit (over 75 years) is now 2.2 percentage points of payrolls. That's 30 basis points larger than was the case in last year's report, by far the largest increase in recent memory." (Cato Institute)

Why 401(k)'s Should Offer Index Funds
"The task facing [plan fiduciaries] is to construct your menu of investments carefully, while keeping a close eye on costs and risk. But many 401(k) plans do not offer a basic lineup of index mutual funds, which buy every security in a particular market segment rather than try to guess which small collection of individual ones will offer the highest return." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Including Executive Compensation Information on Your Corporate Web Site
"I encourage readers to take a look at the suggestion and examples in this article, 'Communicating executive pay information on the web,' by Dominic Jones, on the IR Web Report [at http://irwebreport.com/20110126/communicating-executive-pay-information-on-the-web]." (Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)

Media Briefing: Understanding the Annual Reports of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees
Download the mp3 of this briefing (11:17) (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

Employee Ownership Update for May 16, 2011
NCEO Executive Director Loren Rodgers discusses new research on the impact of employee ownership, the state of employee ownership in the European Union, encouragement for employee ownership in South Africa, executive compensation at Publix, and a new chair at the ESOP Association. (National Center for Employee Ownership)

Supreme Court Decision in Amara v. CIGNA a Victory for Workers and Retirees
(Pension Rights Center)

ACS, A Xerox Company, Expands My Medicare Advocate Network with Humana Inc. and WellPoint, Inc.
(ACS)

AlwaysCare Benefits Expands Dental Provider Network by 30 Percent
(AlwaysCare Benefits, Inc.)

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COBRA Compliance Workshop
in Utah on June 14, 2011 presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

Form 5500 Reporting Update
Nationwide on June 2, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Healthy Employees Can Change Your Business - A Global Employer Case Study
in Illinois on May 26, 2011 presented by WEB - Chicago West

HIPAA and Other Health Benefits Laws: Compliance Assistance Seminar
in California on August 3, 2011 presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

HIPAA and Other Health Benefits Laws: Compliance Assistance Seminar
in Idaho on August 24, 2011 presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

Meeting Your Fiduciary Responsibilities Under ERISA
Nationwide on July 19, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Pharmacy Benefit Plans: Strategies to Control Costs
Nationwide on June 8, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Smoking Discrimination in the Workplace: On and Off the Clock
Nationwide on July 12, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Strategies for Managing Your Company's Global Benefits Program
Nationwide on May 16, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers
in New York on May 17, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers
in New York on June 9, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers
in Ohio on June 15, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers
in Texas on June 16, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers
in Vermont on June 23, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers
in Pennsylvania on June 23, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers
in Pennsylvania on June 29, 2011 presented by Lorman Education Services